Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Difference between revisions

[[Cloudcuckoolander|Bob is a bit off.]] He might be a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|helpful]] member of the [[True Companions]], but his habit of breaking into song and dance for no reason, or his obsession with rulers, or insisting that he carry a carrot of no less than 6.12 millimeters (and no longer) in length at all times, or saluting whenever the air temperature drops below... well, you get the idea. Put quite simply, he's hard for anyone to understand, talk to, or otherwise work with. Everyone except his ([[Vitriolic Best Buds|long suffering, but inexplicably loyal]]) childhood friend Alice, that is.

In a nutshell, this trope is about someone who has the task (be it as a friend or their actual job) of keeping an eye on the resident [[Cloudcuckoolander]], [[Fish Out of Water]] or other strange person. They might be a close friend, relative, hired bodyguard or nanny or even just a plain old servant. As long as they accompany someone who's a bit crazy and try to prevent things getting out of hand, they're this trope.

* Generally keeping them out of trouble (calming down angry locals, posting bail, finding directions to the nearest stationery store or farmer's market, etc).

* [[Beleaguered Assistant|Doing the legwork they're too crazy to do themselves.]]

* Acting as a "tour guide" to explain things to them (this can also be a good reason to make them [[Mr. Exposition]]).

* [[Translator Buddy|Translating what they're saying]] from [[Techno Babble|whatever]] [[Word Salad Humour|their]] [[The Unintelligible|preferred]] form of communication may be.

Of course, since there needs to be a plot ([[Rule of Funny|or at least some gags]]), [[Failure Is the Only Option]]. If the person in question is completely dependent, then this is [[The Caretaker]]. [[The Cuckoolander Was Right|Expect their roles to be reversed at least once.]]

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* Aoi to Hayana in ''[[Twinkle Saber Nova]]''.

* In ''[[GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class]]'' Mizubuchi is this to the art club president; Awara. She even lampshaded it once, noting that she has a friend who she always needs to take care of.

* In ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' Sharna Alamgir was, according to the mangaka, created to play the [[Straight Man]] to Fumi Hibino's goofball character and basically exists to provide [[Deadpan Snarker|snappy comebacks]]. It must be a bit hard for her, since she is a foreign exchange student herself.

* In ''[[The Sandman]]'' Barnabas the Dog is assigned by Destruction to accompany and watch over his sister, Delirium ([[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|her name says it all]]).

* Dr. Watson acts as one of these to the eccentric and blunt ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]''.

* Rincewind is assigned this role (as a literal tour guide) for Twoflower in the ''[[Discworld]]'' series.

* The whole premise of ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'' revolves around Lennie and George as (mentally handicapped) [[Cloudcuckoolander]] and minder, respectively. While Lennie's quirks land them both in hot water and drive long-suffering George up the wall, George cares deeply about Lennie and ends up {{spoiler|[[Shoot the Dog|shooting him dead rather than let him die at the hands of a lynch mob]]}}.

* On [[Leverage]], Sophie often serves as a minder for Parker, usually by giving her advice on how to survive in [[No Social Skills|social situations]] and act like a normal person while trying to pull off a con.

** Although all the team members become Cloudcuckoolander midners for Parker at one point or another.

* ''Community'' plays with this a lot, generally surrounding Abed. The group often has to help him, notable examples being [[Community/Recap/S1 E21 Contemporary American Poultry|Jeff promising to help him understand people]], [[Community/Recap/S3 E16 Virtual Systems Analysis|Annie explaining empathy]], and Troy helping him function day to day, as explored in "[[Community/Recap/S3 E12 Contemporary Impressionists|Contemporary Impressionists]]." But seeing as Abed is [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] and they are in a tv show, often the group needs him to explain or fix things for them.

* The main characters in the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series tend to be this to their sidekicks (at the very least they occasionally manage to prevent them from doing something stupid).

* A more serious version appears in ''[[The Suffering]]'' where there's an [[Escort Mission]] (optional, but you'll need to complete it to get the best ending) that involves guiding around a drugged up, traumatised teenager who's so out of it he thinks you're his father.

* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'' you essentially serve as this to Moira Brown when you're doing her (exceptionally long) quest chain to gather data for writing a survival guide. You can even talk her out of pursuing said dream (but only [[Break the Cutie|if you're feeling cruel]]).

* At least some of the cast of ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' try to keep [[Catgirl|Taokaka]] out of trouble when they can (particularly {{spoiler|her progenitor}} [[Old Master|Jubei]], his student [[The Hero|Ragna]] and Tao's more level headed [[Cool Big Sis]] and mentor Torakaka, and occasionally, her 'very good friend' [[Ms. Fanservice|Litchi]]).

* Apollo believes he is this to Thalia in ''[[Thalias Musings]]''. Thalia disagrees.

* [[Megatokyo]]: Piro is this to Largo, translating his l33t sp34k when necessary and trying to rein him in from trouble. Lately, however, Erika has been taking over the job--when she's not just running with the madness.

* ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'': Edd is this to both Ed and Eddy. Well, at least he ''tries.''